East Coast and Today FM’s Declan Meehan has paid fulsome tribute to his old Radio Nova pirate buddy Bob Gallico who died on Monday in California.
“Bob and I started on Radio Nova in the same week of June 1982,” Declan recalls. “He told me it was a coincidence of events that he joined the station. He’d heard it, liked it and fleetingly thought if he ever went back to radio it would be to Nova. One morning he was unusually late going in to his job as a salesman in Weatherglaze Replacement Windows and heard the Nova Job Slot at 9.45am offering newsreading positions on the station. He applied and, not surprisingly, got a job. I was starting on the Breakfast Show, he was on morning news.
“As well as the bulletin on the hour there were headlines on the half-hour and we used to engage in a bit of on-air banter after them. John Clark, now with 2fm, thought it sounded good and suggested to station owner Chris Cary that we should interact more frequently, do a two-hander. I’d been taking the pee out of myself with the name Dekki Wekki so we called the new show – well, unofficially – The Dekki Wekki Brekki Trekki. It’s a name which still gets quoted back to me! The programme took off almost immediately becoming the most listened to show in greater Dublin. It’s been said by many in broadcasting that it was the forerunner of breakfast shows that have been on air since. It was an exciting fun time and we just hit it off.
“Bob’s humour was razor-sharp, his delivery was precise and his creativity exceptional. He also had a great ability to turn topical stories into entertainment. He wrote and performed many parody songs. His most famous being ‘Busy Line’ about a frustrated listener trying to get through to the station 24/7 for a request. Bob included all the station deejays’ names in the lyrics. He sang it on stage at my wedding by special request from the guests.
“Our links were mostly ad lib and spontaneous. Both of us put the end result first. What worked for us was that in my case I became a fan of Bob and was not competing to have ‘the last say’, and for him he gave me lots of space to do my contribution. We were our own producers with just one extra person helping with news in the morning, Anne Cassin now working in RTÉ.
“An explanation to our great listenership was that I appealed to the Nova audience but Bob brought in many listeners who would not normally listen. In those circles I was often ‘the other guy with Bob Gallico.’ There are very few people who became synonymous with the station, but ask now ‘What voice do you remember on Radio Nova?’ and more often than not the answer will be ‘Bob Galico’.
“In Nova we looked up to Bob. He was at least 20 years older and had been on US radio. He was American, had a great broadcasting voice and was full of creative ideas. We discovered that he’d acted in movies and made many appearances in British TV shows like The Persuaders. Another dimension was that his father Paul wrote The Snow Goose and The Poseidon Adventure.
“However, Bob knew Dublin. He’d lived here since the 1950s and was married to an Irish woman, Joyce (RIP). There was another side to Bob in Nova too; his ability to sell! Bob was affectionately known as the chief ‘blagger’. As the coolest radio station in town there was so much promotional stuff coming in to Nova for us to take home it reminded me of what mayhem the Beatles’ Apple store in London must have been like! As a salesman Bob knew how to harness it. He would arrange great prizes for us for the show like holidays, meals, cameras etc We were of course often given an extra one as a gift. He used to play one company off another to our benefit… a lot but not all the time. It was fun!
“There was one occasion where we gave away a paraffin heater as a prize and Bob arrived in to the station with one for each of us too. A paraffin heater! His best one was when he blagged a deal with a car company who gave us an extremely favourable deal on new vehicles. It was pirate radio in the 80’s and Bob was definitely at home using all his skills!
“Bob loved being on the radio and while newsreading was his initial vehicle he was very knowledgeable about classical music. He presented Classico on Radio Ireland, Century Radio and East Coast FM. Among his quirky shows was one where he highlighted classical pieces used in pop songs.
“Bob told me of his illness last autumn. He was very philosophical about it. ‘I got a good run and have done all I wanted to do and if this is the way to go, well, so be it.’
He had hoped to get another year and had planned to visit Ireland for the annual Radio Nova reunion last May. It was a special one; 30 years after the Department raid on the studios in Herbert Street. We were on air together that morning when the Gardai arrived. Sadly he was too ill to travel and said his ‘goodbyes’ to the Nova Class of 1983 – Colm Hayes , Ken Hammond, David Harvey, Andrew Hanlon, Greg Gaughran, Scott Williams, John Clarke, Mike Moloney etc – all individyally on Skype. He told us not to be sad, to enjoy the night and make a toast to him. In a way that was it; the screen went blank, Bob Gallico had signed off.
“The experience I had working with Bob on Nova in the 80’s was to learn to be more than a deejay and to develop myself to do more than ‘playing records.’ He did say that I brought new qualities out in him too, which was very kind. When you work with a creative person like Bob it rubs off and with his encouragement and generosity I found within myself the tools to present other types of programmes. Many others, journalists, newsreaders and even a current Ministerial aid will recall what a great mentor and inspiration he was to them. Thanks Bob from us all.”
Hot Press remembers The Dekki Wekki Brekki Trekki with much fondness, and echoes all that Declan has to say about Bob being one of the Irish radio greats.